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Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Spin Me a Yarn

So I've been a bit quiet on the blog lately. I think there are two main reasons for this; 1.) March Madness took some of the wind out of my blogging sails, and 2.) umm... spinning!!!

It finally clicked and now I am a woman possessed! I'm quickly spinning my way through my small fiber stash. First there was the gray Corriedale from Susan's Fiber Shop.

Really uneven and chunky, but it does look like yarn. I found this first batch of roving to be really difficult to spin and a bit frustrating, but I stuck with it. Next I spun a wool top from the Iowa Sheep and Wool Festival.

Still uneven, but I could probably knit it on US 10 needles into a cool scarf or something. Then I went to Serendipity Yarn Shoppe for a Spin-In with Abi, from High Prairie Fibers. I learned a ton in the short time I was there and my next yarn actually looked like "real" yarn. You know, the kind people pay money for.

Another wool top from the Iowa Sheep and Wool Festival. This one was 100% merino and hand-dyed. So soft, and really, really fun to knit. After skeining this yarn, spinning was all I could think about. Last summer, at Miss Effie's Market Party I bought some roving from High Prairie Fibers. It turned into this:

There are quite a few vendors there. I've been there the last two years, and I found a lot of really cool fiber, even before I knew how to spin! I'm not sure how far of a drive it is for you, but I'd definitely recommend it! I know I'll try to be there!

The Michigan Fiber Festival is in the Southwest corner of the state in August. A trip there from the Eastern side of Iowa would only be about 3 hours. That part of MI is beautiful and there are many campgrounds near the lake, if that's of interest as well. I think this festival is more centered around the fiber arts and less around the animals, where as the Iowa festival seemed to be a mix of both.